your importunity. Destroy to-day
a certain house that I shall show you, and I will give you the tent for
a gift. Otherwise, have no more talk.' He showed him the roof of a
certain white house which stood back three _kos_ [six miles] in the
enemy country, a little underneath a hill with woods on each side.
Consider this, measuring three _kos_ in your mind along the Amritsar
Road. The Gunner Officer said:--'By God, I accept this bargain.' He
issued orders and estimated the distance. I saw him going back and
forth as swiftly as a lover. Then fire was delivered and at the fourth
discharge the watchers through their glasses saw the house spring high
and spread abroad and lie upon its face. It was as a tooth taken out by
a barber. Seeing this, the Gunner Officer sprang into the tent and
looked through the window and smiled because the tent was now his. But
the enemy did not understand the reasons. There was a great gunfire all
that night, as well as many enemy-regiments moving about. The prisoners
taken afterwards told us their commanders were disturbed at the fall of
the house, ascribing it to some great design on our part, so that their
men had no rest for a week. Yet it was all done for a little green
tent's sake!

"I tell you this that you may understand the meaning of things. This is
a world where the very hills are turned upside down, with the cities
upon them. He who comes alive out of this business will forever after
be as a giant. If anyone wishes to see it let him come here or remain
disappointed all his life."

[_We will finish with affection and sweet words. After all, a brother
is a brother._] "As for myself, why do you write to me so many
complaints? Are _you_ fighting in this war or I? You know the saying:
'A soldier's life is for his family: his death is for his country: his
discomforts are for himself alone.' I joined to fight when I was young.
I have eaten the Government's salt till I am old. I am discharging my
obligation. When all is at an end, the memory of our parting will be
but a dream.

"I pray the Guru to bring together those who are separated.

"God alone is true. Everything else is but a shadow."

[_That is poetry. Oh--and add this, Sahib._]

"Let there be no delay about the carpet. She would not accept anything
else."

THE PRIVATE ACCOUNT

_Scene_: Three and a half miles across the Border--Kohat way. _Time_:
The edge of sunset. Single room in a stone built tower house reached by